Literally any crime scene contains animal, plant, soil, microbial or environmental traces. Examples include pet hairs or saliva, pollen and algae, soil and soil organisms like bacteria or nematodes, fungal spores, insects, and environmental traces in the form of environmental DNA of any origin. Such biological traces can be found mainly on living people (suspects, victims), on objects like cars or weapons, and on bodies not just on the surface but also in their surroundings like single or mass graves, or an aquatic environment. In the EU, there is a lack of training opportunities in applied topics of forensic science at postgraduate level, such as the qualitative and quantitative analysis of specifically such non-human biological traces. While many EU countries have forensic laboratories that also such traces, a much broader, integrated knowledge base is needed, built on close cooperation between basic research in academia and analysis and application in casework by forensic specialists. Natural Traces aims to optimise the procedures for taking and analysing non-human traces in order to meet the ever-increasing demands for identifying suspects and victims and to link traces to different places, times or courses of action. The results based on this need a statistical robustness that will also hold up in the courtroom under cross-examination. The proposal aims for 10 PhD students with a background in life sciences. They will build their knowledge and experience in practical forensics in training schools provided by academic, non-academic partners, and police academies or laboratories. The training embeds biological evidence in a Bayesian framework, making it universally comparable with all other forms of evidence, by applying novel probabilistic approaches to extract forensic useful information from metadata. It is truly cross-sectoral, with secondments at end-users of the training (e.g. police forces) and joint supervision by PIs from different countries.

The ENTENDER project is a joint project in Region 8 (Latin America). It addresses the regional priority for ‘Improving management and operations of higher education institutions’ and specifically aligns with the CBHE priority ‘Equity, access to and democratisation of higher education.’ As suggested by the CBHE definition, the project will promote the inclusion of people with neurodiversity, who, as a sector of a larger group of people with disabilities, are currently disadvantaged by society resulting in them being disproportionately represented amongst the world’s lower socioeconomic groups. The aim of the project is to improve access, retention, attainment and employment prospects of people with neurodiverse conditions in Argentina and Mexico, allowing them to achieve their full potential by capacity building of neurodiversity support across higher education and employment sectors, fostering inclusion, and building knowledge. National education systems, which promote human capital development, play a major role in fostering economic development and strengthening the social institutions in a country and it is through education that disadvantage can be addressed. All project activities have been planned in an “inclusive” way to allow the participation of a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including students, parents, teachers, senior managers, employers and social partners. The EU will build capacity in Argentina and Mexico to deliver national and regional priorities by providing support for EU university staff to share knowledge and good practice, resources for teaching training and curriculum change, peer support programmes and employability support.